New Zealand's first esports scholarship recipient is now plying his craft at our first university-based esports space – the Omen Esports Arena at Waikato.
Photo: Waikato University
The Omen esports arena is part of Waikato University's wellbeing space which allows students to take some time out and destress, Esports coordinator Tom Featonby tells RNZ Lately's Karyn Hay.
Featonby says it was not hard to convince university leadership to set up the space, and the decision came from "pretty high up the chain".
"We’re in a very cool spot on campus, we share the building that we’re in – which is an old railway station – with the wellbeing hub, so yeah we have a proper focus on wellbeing with what we’re doing.
"During the week and during the semester time we run it like an internet cafe, so we’re open from 10 to 4 and students can come in and play. We do have a limit of an hour and a half for students and we’re quite lucky in the sort of culture that we’ve put together we don’t have to enforce that very often."
"We also have events during night-time as well where we tend to fill the arena with people, so Tuesday nights – I'm actually at the arena tonight and the boys here are being very quiet ... we’ve got them in here playing Formula 1 2019 together, so it’s a racing car game."
The arena is packed during these weekly events, Featonby says.
"We’ve got a big group from one of the hostels that come in every Tuesday night without fail and fill the arena for me, which is quite nice. One of the main parts I like about being the esports coordinator is the relationship-building – getting to know them and sharing their passion for gaming."
That responsibility includes mentoring New Zealand's first esports scholarship recipient, Ryan Holt.
"Monetary value, it’s $5000, just for the year. So it’s for school leavers, we’re trying to build a really good community so get new, fresh blood in every year I guess.
"With that he also gets sort of mentorship from me, I sort of check in on him every month or so to make sure he’s actually achieving academically – which he is, he’s incredibly bright. A lot of students struggle in first year but he’s not one of those, which is great. [We try to] make sure he’s eating right and getting enough sleep and all those sorts of things.
"He plays League of Legends, so what we’ve done is this year we have built our programme around him ... we’ve run tournaments and we’ve created a team built around him, as well."
League of Legends is one of the main games on offer, along with Dota 2, Featonby says.
"Dota 2 has just had its big international tournament which was worth sort of 35-ish million [US] dollars … so we’ve got those sorts of games.
"What we don’t support are realistic first-person shooters, so being the first university to have an esports presence we’re very wary that we need to be above board with everything we do and especially after Christchurch."
Games that feature realistic-looking guns, blood and gore – like the popular Counter-Strike – are not available at the arena, a move which was unpopular with some, but some of the more cartoon-style shooting games are allowed.
Esports, he says, is largely male-dominated, Featonby says, despite a strong female player base.
"Definitely gaming, in general, it’s about 50-50 but we tend to see a lot more males come along to events. I’m not sure why that is because females are definitely well represented in esports, in general. It’s just when it comes to tournaments and events they don’t come out to events and support as much as we would like.
"We are just about to start running a ladies’ night to get people along a bit more."
